August 10 and 12, 1944: Anna writes two letters to her brothers to bring them up to speed on what is happening on the home front in Albany, NY.
Their cousin Eddie Morawski “has had his operation on his left wrist and it is all okay now and yesterday he was in church with his Rose. After church we gave them a ride home and Eddie is happy and so was Rose. Eddie said that he would be stationed permanently in the Brooklyn Navy Yards when he goes back again and it is a good break for him to be so near home.” Eddie was only supposed to have four days off after his surgery, but was given fourteen days. He made good use of the extra time by taking a trip with Rose to Lake George as a “delayed honeymoon”.
As far as the latest antics from little Terry, Anna writes that she has taken to referring to the statue of St. Anthony in the house as “Toni”. Terry has also gotten big enough to reach up and touch the statue. As Anna tells the story,”…today she did not only touch him, but knocked him down from the table and lucky for the both of them he was not broken or cracked. Daddy told her that now Saint Anthony got hurt and he was crying and she stood there so sad and heartbroken and she was saying ‘Poor Toni, nice Toni’. It was simply too funny for words. I knew that my daughter would one day commit sacrilege by demolishing the saints but too bad she has such an early start in life. What will she be like when she gets bigger?”
Anna didn’t have to wait for Terry to get bigger. All she had to do is wait for the sisters from the local convent to come to the house for the “annual summer collection”. Although little Terry was a a bit afraid of them at first, sitting “on the couch in the front room with her eyes closed while the sisters kept on talking to her…After a while she opened them and got friendly. They gave her a holy picture of blessed Mother…” Eventually Terry got a little antsy sitting on the couch, and before Anna and the sister knew it she “stuck her rear end in the air for the sisters to see,” and as Anna comments “I bet it’s been a long time that they saw one.”
In other news from home, it seems that nuptials are the order of the day. As Anna writes, “Today in the paper I saw a picture of a girl that is engaged to Francis Day from Orange Street so it must be the guy that lives next to the Hagans. He is in the Marines. It looks like everybody is getting married. Also Casey Drozdowski is getting married…to some girl from Cleveland.”
Next up, more letters from England.